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SCIENCE STUDIES EVENTS
Davis Baird Department of Philosophy and NanoCenter University of South Carolina October 4, 2005 Tuesday, 12:30pm-2:00pm Sumwalt College, Room 102 Many years ago Daniel Dennett coined the phrase "intuition pump." Images of the nanoscale are powerful intuition pumps for thinking about, intervening on and responding to nanoscale technologies. I focus on moving images of the nanoscale. Moving images have the potential to drive home one essential point about the nanoscale that still images have difficulty capturing: The world of the nanoscale -- at "normal" temperatures and pressures -- is a world of intense activity, a "blooming buzzing confusion" in William James' words. David Beveridge's simulation of the motion of DNA in an aqueous environment -- by contrast with Don Eigler's "IBM" -- make this point in a compelling way. Intuitions about the dynamic aspects of the nanoscale go to the heart of our understanding of "atomic precision" and "molecular manufacturing." These intuitions are key players in how one assesses the Smalley-Drexler dispute. A more extensive inventory or movies of nanoscale objects, however, reveals a more complex situation. Different kinds of nano movies work in different ways to convey different messages, "pumping different intuitions." Two other nano movies -- Jie Han et al.'s "carbon nanotube gears" and D. Srivastava et al.'s "carbon nanotube compression study" -- make the point. I present an initial typology of nano movies, side-by-side with some of the rudiments of theory about moving images -- particularly digital "new media" moving images. My goal is to sketch the outlines of a critique of moving images for representing the nanoscale. |
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Last updated 11/6/08 11:11 PM
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burke@sc.edu
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